Selectable multi-purpose card

ABSTRACT

A selectable, multi-purpose card comprising a plurality of features stored in memory means operatively mounted on the card and selection means for allowing a user to select a feature in a few simple steps, preferably in a single step. In one embodiment the card includes a plurality of magnetic strips positioned on the card in a manner to allow swiping each magnetic strip separately using conventional reading devices. Each magnetic strip activates a different feature of the card. In another embodiment the card includes a programmable magnetic strip, a plurality of features stored in memory means mounted on the card, a plurality of buttons or contacts, and means for programming the magnetic strip with a different card feature. The card may also include a thin, flexible display.

This application is a continuation application of U.S. Ser. No.13/105,060 filed May 11, 2011, which is a continuation application ofU.S. Ser. No. 12/495,068 filed Jun. 30, 2009, and now issued as U.S.Pat. No. 7,954,708, which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 11/276,348,filed Feb. 24, 2006 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,591,416, which isa continuation application of U.S. Ser. No. 11/011,683, filed Dec. 15,2004 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,191,952, which is a divisional ofU.S. Ser. No. 10/436,466, filed May 13, 2003 and now issued as U.S. Pat.No. 7,163,153, which is a divisional of U.S. Ser. No. 09/730,399, filedDec. 6, 2000 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,631,849, all of which arehereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a financial services vehicle,such as plastic credit cards of the type commonly associated withMASTERCARD®, VISA®, AMERICAN EXPRESS®, ATM banking cards, securitycards, or identification cards. More specifically, it relates to aselectable, multi-purpose card having a plurality of features stored inmemory means operatively mounted on the card and selection means mountedon the card or a card reader allowing a user to select a card feature ina single step. The features when selected allow the card to function asa different card and/or to perform functions not traditionally availablein financial plastic cards.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Magnetic cards, such as commercial credit cards, debit cards, ortransfer funds cards are widely used for payments, cash advances, orother financial transactions. Data for identifying the customer, such asan account number, a security code, or other identifying data istypically magnetically stored on a magnetic tape or strip embedded intothe back side of the card.

When a transaction is to be performed at a retail store, a customerhands his or her card to an employee of the retail store and theemployee then scans the magnetic information into a communicationdevice.

When a credit card is utilized in a bank in order to receive a cashadvance, the transaction is handled by either a teller or an automatedteller machine (ATM). In the case of an ATM, the card is placed insidethe ATM and the credit card owner enters a personal identificationnumber (PIN) which is transmitted to the credit card company along withthe transaction information. When the PIN number is found to beincorrect, most credit companies send to the credit card user a requestto re-enter the PIN number.

Smart cards, i.e., cards having integrated circuit (IC) chips embeddedinto the cards are also known. A conventional smart card may include aprocessor coupled to an electrically erasable, programmable, read-onlymemory (EEPROM), read-only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM).These components may be fabricated onto a single integrated chipcomprising a microprocessing/controller unit (MPU). The processorexecutes instructions stored on ROM and temporarily stores data on RAMwhereas the EEPROM is a non-volatile memory used for storing dataidentifying the uniqueness of a smart card. A smart card also mayinclude an input/output (I/O) signal interface for transferring variousI/O signals between the smart card and an external system. The I/Ointerface may take the form of a contact with the external system, or aperipheral thereof, for proper transfer of signals. Alternatively, theI/O interface may take the form of a radio frequency (RF) interface forallowing communication between the smart card and the external systemvia the transmission and reception of RF signals. The external systemmay take the form, for example, of a card reader, a merchant's point ofsale system, or an automated teller machine.

Typically, power is supplied to the smart card from the external systemwhen the system communicates with the smart card. This may beaccomplished through the I/O interface. However, this means that a smartcard is only powered and its data is accessible only when the smart cardis connected to the external system.

One of the widespread uses of smart card technology is as a stored-valuecard, which contains monetary value in the microchip embedded in thecard. For example, each time a consumer uses a chip card in a vendingmachine, the amount of the purchase is deducted from the cash balancestored in the microchip on the chip card. One application for suchstored-value chip cards is eliminating the need for people to carryaround small coins or bills and speed up the time it takes to consummatesmall cash transactions. However, most chip cards do not offer built-indisplays for viewing the cash balance remaining on the chip card. Thisreduces the convenience and ease of use of chip cards.

Some have suggested including a display to a plastic card in conjunctionwith input means, such as a keypad for viewing and editing information.For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,954,985 to Yamazaki describes a smart cardwith a ferroelectric, liquid crystal memory region and a ferroelectric,liquid crystal display (LCD) region. U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,903 toPoisenka, et al. describes a smart card having a microprocessing unit(MPU) for executing instructions stored in a memory, a liquid crystaldisplay (LCD), coupled to the MPU for displaying information, a keypad,coupled to the MPU and to the display for entering data by the user, aninterface for transferring signals between the smart card and theexternal system when the smart card is coupled to the external system,and photovoltaic cells for providing power to the smart when the smartcard is exposed to light.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,038 to Pitroda (“Pitroda”) describes a card thatincludes an LCD display and means for selecting between various cardfeatures. The means for selecting between the various card features,described by Pitroda, are generally complex, difficult to implement andthey will result in a bulky and unpractical plastic card. Moreover, LCDssuch as the one suggested by Pitroda have not found wide commercialsuccess in plastic cards. They are generally less flexible than theremainder of the plastic cards, and thus, they tend to fracture undernormal use conditions. To prevent LCDs from fracturing the displayswould have to be either too small or too thick. Another problemassociated with multi-purpose cards, such as the card of Pitroda is thatthey generally require the user to follow a plurality of steps to selectthe desired feature. These and other problems with known plastic cardsexist.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a thin, flexible,card that combines the functions of different cards into a single cardinstrument.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a card thatincludes a plurality of features and selection means that allow a userto select a desired feature preferably in a single step, prior topresenting the card to a sales person or using the card.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a card thatmay include a thin, flexible display, such as a light-emitting polymer(LEP) display for displaying information denoting the selected feature,and/or other information, or instructions relating to the selectedfeature. The information may be, for example, account status or recenttransaction information or a graphic image such as a logo of the issuingauthority.

One aspect of the present invention relates to a selectable,multi-purpose card that includes a plurality of features stored inmemory means operatively mounted on the card and selection means mountedon the card for allowing a user to select a feature in only a few simplesteps or preferably in a single step. In an alternative embodiment theselection means are mounted on a card reader device. The card reader mayalso include a display for displaying information relating to thevarious card features.

Preferably, the card is a thin, flexible card having substantially thesame form factor as conventional plastic credit or smart cards of thetype commonly associated with MASTERCARD®, VISA®, and AMERICAN EXPRESS®.Preferably, the card may be from about 80 mm to about 90 mm long, fromabout 50 mm to about 60 mm wide and from about 0.5 to about 1.5 mmthick.

The card can be, for example, a debit card, a credit card, a transferfunds card, a smart card, a stored-value card, a gift card, an ATM card,a security card or an identification card. The features may allow thecard to function as a different card, such as a credit card, debit card,ATM bank card, stored value card, security card, identity card and thelike. The card may also include means for providing or processing eitheraccount, identity, payment, health, transactional, or other informationand communicating with central processing units or computers operated bythe providers of services, such as credit card institutions, banks,health care providers, universities, retailers, wholesalers or otherproviders of goods or services employers, or membership organizations.Card features may also enable the card to communicate with or beaccessed by other devices, including those used by retailers (point ofsale computers), and personal computers used in other businessapplications or at home, for example, personal computer using a built-inor attached card reader.

A card feature may be selected by a variety of means, such as by inputat the merchant point of sale, on the Internet, network, or similarvirtual location, through an associated input device, or preferably bymeans included on the plastic card itself.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a card is provided whichincludes a plurality of magnetic strips, each magnetic strip containinginformation that allows activation of a different card feature.Preferably, the magnetic strips are positioned on the card in a mannerthat allows them to be read by simply swiping them in a conventionalmagnetic reading device such as an ATM machine or any other magneticstrip reader. However, in alternate embodiments, swiping may require aparticular orientation of the card, and/or a particular depth setting ofthe magnetic stripe reader in order to access the appropriate feature,account, identity or other information stored on the card.

In another embodiment of the present invention a card is provided whichincludes a programmable magnetic strip, a plurality of features storedin memory means mounted on the card, a plurality of buttons or contactsfor selecting between the features, and means for programming themagnetic strip with a different card feature. The user can select afeature by depressing or touching the buttons and or contacts whichcauses the programming means to program the magnetic strip withinformation that activates the selected feature. The user can then scanthe card in a magnetic reader device. Preferably, the card of thepresent invention may contain a display for displaying informationdenoting the selected feature, or other information and instructionsrelating to the selected feature. More preferably, the display may be alight-emitting polymer (LEP) display. Alternatively, a card reader maybe provided comprising selection means and a display for selecting anddisplaying a card feature.

In yet another embodiment of the present invention, a card is providedthat includes a display, preferably an LEP display, and a keypad forselecting a different card feature and/or editing information relatingto the selected feature. Suitable light emitting polymeric materialsinclude conjugated polymers such as poly (β-phenylene vinylene) (PPV),PPV derivatives, pyridine containing polymers and copolymers such aspoly (ρ-pyridine) (PPy), poly (ρ-pyridyl vinylene) (PPyV), copolymers ofPPyV and PPV derivatives (PPyVP(R)₂V) with various functional sidegroups R═C₁₂H₂₅, OC₁₆H₃₃, COOC₁₂H₂₅, strapped copolymer, and otherconjugated polymers and copolymers.

Means also may be provided for providing storing, and rechargingelectric power and for selectively providing power to the components tothe card. The card may also include security means for preventingunauthorized use of the card and for preventing unauthorized access tothe information stored in the memory means of the card.

The present invention also relates to a method for conducting anelectronic transaction comprising providing a selectable multi-purposecard and a card reader; establishing an electronic communication betweenthe card and the card reader, selecting a card feature, and conductingan electronic transaction corresponding to the selected card feature.

Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent fromthe description of preferred embodiments in conjunction with thefollowing figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front view of a card according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 is a rear view of the card of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3A is a rear view of a card according to another embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 3B is a rear view of a card according to another embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 is a rear view of a card according to yet another embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block schematic of exemplary systems and circuits that maybe employed in the card of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a block schematic of a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention card is provided. The front face of the card 10 has embossedletters 12 which identify the authorized user of the card 10. It furtherincludes embossed account numbers 14 which identify the accountassociated with the card 10. For example, if the card is used as acredit card the account number 14 identifies the credit account fromwhich charges are deducted when a purchase or cash advance is made.

The front face of the card 10 further may also include numbers 16denoting the expiration date of the card, a logo 18 denoting the issuingauthority such as VISA®, MASTERCARD®, AMERICAN EXPRESS®. The front faceof the card 10 may further include one or more conventional designelements such as a hologram 20, and printed letters 22 denoting thefinancial institution issuing the card.

The rear face of the card 10 includes two magnetic strips 24 and 26.Each magnetic strip 24 is programmed with a code corresponding to aparticular feature of the card and an authorization code. Embossed orprinted characters 28, 29 positioned adjacent the magnetic strips 26,24, respectively, denote the card feature that can be activated byswiping each magnetic strip. Magnetic strips 24 and 26 can be read usingconventional magnetic reader devices. Magnetic strips 24 and 26 arepreferably positioned in a manner that allows selection of a desiredfeature by simply swiping magnetic strip with the desired featurethrough a conventional magnetic reader device such as an ATM machine.Card 10 has width, length, and thickness dimensions similar to those ofconventional plastic cards. For example, a card 10 may be about 86 mmlong, about 55 mm wide, about 0.8 mm thick, and may meet other ISOStandards associated with such cards.

FIG. 3A illustrates an alternative embodiment where card 10 has fourmagnetic strips 30, 32, 34, and 36 embedded on the rear face of card 10,which are preferably positioned sufficiently close to the edges of thecard 10 to permit scanning by simply swiping conventional magneticreader devices. However, it should be understood that the presentinvention is not limited to the aforementioned configuration andpositioning of the magnetic strips, and that other embodiments can beenvisioned by a person skilled in the art from the disclosure of thepresent invention. For example, the magnetic strips may be on the frontor the rear face of the card.

FIG. 3B illustrates an embodiment of the present invention wherein acard has vertical magnetic strips 35 and 37 positioned on the rear faceof the card and horizontal magnetic strips 31 and 33 positioned on thefront face of the card. The length and width of the magnetic strips mayvary. For example, the horizontal magnetic strips 31 and 33 may extendthe whole length of the front face of the card as shown in FIG. 3B.

Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5 another embodiment of the present inventionis provided. FIG. 4 illustrates the rear face of a smart card 40 havinga plurality of buttons 42, 44, and 46, each button activating adifferent card feature. For example, buttons 42, 44, and 46 may bedepressible or touch sensitive buttons. Optionally, the rear face of thesmart card 40 may further include characters 42 a, 44 a, and 46 adenoting the card feature corresponding to each button 42, 44 and 46,respectively. The back face of the smart card 40 may also include aprogrammable magnetic strip 48. The magnetic strip is encoded with acode number or some other key corresponding to a card feature selectedby the user by depressing or touching a button corresponding to thatfeature. To accomplish this the smart card 40 may, for example, includethe systems and circuits illustrated in FIG. 5. Referring now to FIG. 5,card 40 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 52, a read-only memory(ROM) 54, dynamic memory (RAM) 56, a power supply system 57, an inputcontrol circuit 50, a magnetic strip controller 58 and an inductor 59.The power supply system 57 may be any of many well known systems suchas, for example, a solar cell connected to a rechargeable battery. Inoperation, the CPU 52 receives power from the power supply system 57 anddistributes the power to the other systems and circuits by a programmedsequence of steps which is stored in the ROM 54.

The smart card 40 may also include a display (not shown). For example,after a selection of a feature is made, a graphic image may appear onthe display which looks like the face of a conventional credit card,including the account number, the user's name, the name of the creditcard company and its logo. Thereafter, the user may present the card tothe point of sales terminal for a sales transaction. The display ispreferably a thin, flexible LEP display.

Memory 54 may be divided into a plurality of discrete portions, i.e., acommon portion A containing information such as the identity of the userand a basic account number and individual discreet portions B, C and D.Each discrete portion B, C, D may contain at least a code or some otherkey that allows access to a specific card feature. In operation, theuser may select a card feature by depressing one of the buttons 42, 44or 46. The button controller circuit 50 is operatively connected to theCPU 52. The button controller circuit 50 detects which button isdepressed and sends this information to the CPU 52. The CPU 52, in turn,uses this information to read the code and any other information storedin a discreet portion of memory 54 that corresponds to the buttondepressed by the user. The CPU 52 also may read the user informationstored in the common portion A of memory 54, and store the code and userinformation in the RAM 56.

The magnetic strip 48 is then encoded with the code, user and any otherinformation stored in the RAM 56. This encoding may be achieved by manydifferent methods known in the art such as the one described, forexample, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,376 to Lessin et al. which isincorporated herein by reference for all purposes to the extent that isnot inconsistent with the disclosure and claims of the presentinvention.

For example, data to be communicated may be output from a processor andconverted by magnetic strip control circuit 58. Magnetic strip controlcircuit 58 may output a signal that drives an inductor 59 to generate amagnetic field pattern which can be read by a card reading device.Signals representing the data to be communicated are output serially,thus emulating data encoded on a magnetic strip.

Preferably, the data is only temporarily preserved on the magnetic strip48. After a certain predetermined period of time sufficient forcompletion of the transaction, for example, five minutes, the processormay supply a signal to the magnetic strip control circuit whicheliminates the generation of the magnetic field, thereby decoding orerasing the magnetic strip.

In a variation of the above embodiment, instead of, or in addition tothe buttons 42, 44, and 46, the plastic card may contain at least onepair of contacts which are exposed on at least one surface of the card.The contacts are designed to allow a user of the card to select afeature corresponding to the pair of contacts by bridging the exposedcontacts with his finger.

In an alternative embodiment of the present invention a smart card isprovided comprising a plurality of features stored in a plurality ofchips operatively mounted on the card and a plurality of contactinterfaces corresponding to each chip. The contact interfaces may bemounted on the front or rear face of the card for allowing a user toselect a card feature separately using a smart card reader to activate acard feature via a contact interface. The contact interfaces arepreferably positioned on the card to allow scanning or reading usingconventional smart card readers.

In yet another embodiment, the card may include a thin, flexible, LEPdisplay. The LEP display may cover, for example, a portion of thesurface of the card or it may cover the whole surface of at least oneside of the card. By selecting a feature of the card as described above,information denoting the selected feature, other information and/orinstructions relating to the selected feature may appear on the display.The information may, for example, be an image, characters, numbers orany combination thereof denoting the credit card issuing authority, thecredit card company and its logo. The display may be touch-sensitive,e.g., it may provide the user with a number of graphical images whichenable the user to selectively chose a card feature by touching selectedparts of the touch-sensitive display.

For example, a user may select a feature of the card, such as astored-value feature. The LEP display, mounted preferably on the frontside of the card (not shown), will then display the characters“STORED-VALUE” and the remaining amount in the stored value card.

In one embodiment the LEP display may comprise a semiconductor layer inthe form of a thin dense polymer film comprising at least one conjugatedpolymer, a first electrode in contact with a first surface of thesemiconductor layer and a second electrode in contact with a secondsurface of the semiconductor layer. The polymer film should have asufficiently low concentration of extrinsic charge carriers so that onapplying an electric potential between the first and second electrodesin a manner that renders the second electrode positive relative to thefirst contact layer charge carriers are injected into the semiconductorlayer and light is emitted from the semiconductor layer.

In yet another embodiment, the LEP display comprises an electrontransporting layer in contact with an electron blocking polymer, theelectron blocking polymer incorporating a network electrode polymer. TheLEP display is connected to a source of electrical current viaelectrodes so as to supply the electron transporting polymer with a flowof electrons, and to cause an electroluminescent emission from theheterojunction between the electron transporting polymer and theelectron blocking polymer.

The electron transporting polymer may be any conductive polymericmaterial of appropriate conductive and electron affinity characteristicsto allow it to act as the electron transporting polymer in a lightemitting device. Likewise, the electron blocking polymer may be anypolymeric material of appropriate electron blocking-polymercharacteristics to allow it act as the electron blocking polymer in alight emitting device. The network electrode polymer may be anypolymeric material that forms an electrically conducting networkpolymeric structure within the electron blocking polymer.

Referring to FIG. 6 a method for conducting an electronic transactionusing the selectable multi-purpose card of the present invention isprovided. The method comprises providing a selectable multi-purpose cardand a card reader, according to blocks 60 and 62, respectively. The cardreader may be any conventional reader having means for establishing anelectronic communication between the card reader and the card, and meansfor establishing an electronic communication between the card and aservice institution handling an account corresponding to the selectedcard feature. Preferably, the card reader may also include means forallowing a user to select a card feature and a display for displayingthe selected card feature and/or other information relating to theselected card feature.

The method further comprises establishing an electronic communicationbetween the card and the card reader, and selecting a card featureaccording to blocks 64 and 66, respectively. The selected feature maythen be displayed on a display mounted either on the card or the cardreader, according to block 68. The method further comprises establishingan electronic communication between the card and a service institutionhandling an account corresponding to the selected feature, according toblock 70.

The foregoing embodiments have been presented for the purpose ofillustration and description only and are not to be construed aslimiting the scope of the invention in any way. The scope of theinvention is to be determined from the claims appended hereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. A payment card comprising: a front layer; a rearlayer; a programmable magnetic strip; a magnetic strip control circuit,wherein said magnetic strip control circuit controls the generation ofdata for the magnetic strip; a display; a memory that is divided into aplurality of discrete portions, at least one of the discrete portionscomprising data specific to at least one of a plurality of cardfeatures; and at least one button for the selection of one of theplurality of card features; wherein the magnetic strip control circuitgenerates data for the magnetic strip based on the data specific to theselected card feature that is stored in one of the discrete portions ofmemory.
 2. The payment card of claim 1, wherein said front layercomprises information.
 3. The payment card of claim 1, furthercomprising a power source.
 4. The payment card of claim 1, furthercomprising a processor.
 5. The payment card of claim 1, furthercomprising a second magnetic strip.
 6. The payment card of claim 1,wherein the magnetic strip control circuit controls the generation ofdata for the programmable magnetic strip for a predetermined period oftime.
 7. The payment card of claim 1, further comprising a pair ofcontacts for the selection of a card feature.
 8. The payment card ofclaim 1, wherein the display is a light emitting polymer display.
 9. Thepayment card of claim 1, wherein the display is a touch sensitivedisplay.
 10. The payment card of claim 1, further comprising a keypad.11. The payment card of claim 1, wherein the magnetic strip isprogrammable.
 12. The payment card of claim 1, wherein said display is aflexible display.
 13. A payment card comprising: a first layer; a secondlayer; a magnetic strip; a power source between the first and secondlayer; a processor between the first and second layer; control circuitrybetween the first and second layer, wherein the control circuitrycontrols the generation of data for the magnetic strip; a wirelessinterface; a display; a memory that is divided into a plurality ofdiscrete portions, at least one of the discrete portions comprising dataspecific to at least one of a plurality of card features; and at leastone button for the selection of one of the plurality of card features;wherein the magnetic strip control circuit generates data for themagnetic strip based on the data specific to the selected card featurethat is stored in one of the discrete portions of memory.
 14. Thepayment card of claim 13, further comprising a chip operable to be readby a chip reader.
 15. The payment card of claim 13, wherein the wirelessinterface comprises an antenna between the first and second layer. 16.The payment card of claim 13, wherein said display is a flexibledisplay.